Sudden swoon

Fear and loathing across a beleaguered cryptosphere couldn't prevent a handful of coins from enjoying some positive momentum. 

Story (IP), the IP-meets-AI project, is one example. IP has surged double-digits over the past 24 hours even as the total market fell 10% to below $3 trillion. IP has now moved past The Graph (GRT) in terms of CoinGecko's rankings of the largest AI-related coins.

Additionally, there is a cat-themed memecoin, Meow (MEOW), up 14%. And come on — let's not pretend we don't see the +6% one-day spurt by DeXe Protocol (DEXE), a platform for creating DAOs. DEXE ranks as CoinGecko's 85th-largest coin. Decentralized decision-making is seen as a powerful driver in the DeFi space in a time of AI, Dexe said in a social media post.

Between last night at 11 p.m. (EST) and the wee hours of this morning, DEXE went from barely $19 to nearly $20.

Crypto cratered after the crypto-friendly U.S. president reminded everyone he likes tariffs, too.

Bitcoin plunged after Trump confirmed during a news conference yesterday that 25% import levies against Canada and Mexico are going forward, sparking a fresh round of inflation fears.

As of today, at 8:30 a.m. (EST), BTC was clinging to $89,000, down 7% compared to yesterday at this time. The largest crypto hasn't sported an $88K handle since mid-November.

Total digital assets surrendered more than $100B worth of value. The sell-off led to $900M in forced liquidations impacting more than 200,000 traders, two-thirds of them long, all of them leveraged. Crypto ETFs have been experiencing heavy outflows even before the macro-backdrop bombshell. The biggest crypto heist in history and the Libra memecoin fiasco have not instilled confidence of late, and that's even as U.S. financial regulators pivot from harsh disciplinarians to nurturing caregivers.

Checking the Big Ten, we noticed a trio of coins (DOGE, ADA and XRP) all mirroring the wider market, down 10% in a day. Among the Top 100, Telcoin (TEL) was hit hardest. TEL shed 20%. When we checked it again, around 9 a.m. (EST), TEL was no longer even in the Top 100, having dropped to No. 102.

Ironically, one of the worst-performers across all of crypto was PAIN, a Solana-bred memecoin that is described as deriving value from the "collective humor and shared experiences of its community" as it celebrates the "comedic side of financial blunders." PAIN's market capitalization fell from $90M to $30M in just the past 24 hours. It's now the 925th-largest coin, according to CoinGecko.

Stiff taxes on imports from two major North American trading partners could exacerbate inflation in the U.S. and keep interest rates high, weighing on risk-assets like crypto. 

Slowing economic growth was already a concern with GDP tracking toward a meager 0.6% annualized rate for 2025, said researchers at Nansen. But then again, slow growth has its virtues from a macro standpoint. 

Either way, brace for more potential downside volatility, with BTC possibly bound for mid-$80K turf, a technical analyst, Hamed_AZ, cautions via a post on TradingView (NewsBTC).

As of this morning, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which evaluates market sentiment on a scale of 1-100, fell to 25, signaling “extreme fear,” per Cointelegraph.

Jeff Mei, COO at crypto exchange BTSE, told CoinDesk inflation worries and a Fed pause have quelled market momentum but he added that "this could change as weak economic data released last week could spur Fed officials to take further action.”

SignalPlus' Augustine Fan echoed this sentiment: "Bad data is now good."

In other words, she explained, a slowdown narrative could lead to Fed easing, a scenario that appeared to be off the table, giving risk-takers an opportunity to refocus their attention on shifting tailwinds.